Building record 12000/12 - Chester City Walls - Northgate

<1> Simpson, F., 1910, The Walls of Chester, p.25-6 (Book). SCH3255.

The former gatehouse is shown in a drawing by Holme (Harl MSS 2073, in the British Museum); it was comprised of a pointed archway between two square towers, the whole structure surmounted by a battlement. Over the gateway and rising above the towers was a three-gabled building that used as the City Gaol, to which prisoner’s would be transported via the Bridge of Sighs (CHER 12000/11). Immediately beneath the gateway and c.9m below street level was a dungeon. Both the gate and the gaol were under the control of the sheriffs of the City, who, according to an inquisition in 1321, received tolls taken here, in return for which they kept the gate and prison, attended to the pillory and stocks, hanged condemned prisoners and published the Earl's proclamations. The gate was defended on the north side by a bridge over a ditch, a feature that had earlier been a drawbridge. In 1808 this gate was demolished and the present gate was erected between 1809 and 1810.

<2> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Ormerod G 1882 1/355-6 (Book). SCH1389.

<3> Morris, Rupert H (Rev.), 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet & Tudor Reigns, /232-236 (Book). SCH946.

<4> Harris, B.E., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides - Chester, /83 (Book). SCH394.

<5> multiple authors, 1977, Excavation Reports and Sites Observed, 75/33 Strickland T J 1977 (Article in Journal). SCH5800.

In 1977, during sewer repairs, a few large blocks of sandstone masonry were discovered, and were thought to have been part of the medieval Northgate; some of these stones are still in situ and recorded by the Grosvenor Museum.

<6> Lewis C.P & Thacker A.T. (eds), 2005, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume Vii, The City of Chester - The City of Chester, Culture, Buildings, Institutions, p221 (Book). SCH6522.

<7> Donald Insall Associates, Chester City Walls Conservation Management Plan, R3251 (Client Report). SCH6603.

The Northgate is now a large archway carrying the city walls footpath over Northgate St., and was built in 1810 in the place of the former medieval gatehouse by Thomas Harrison.

<8> Harris, B.E. (ed), 1987, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume I, p129 (Book). SCH3556.

<9> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 470365 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

The current Northgate is of pale red sandstone ashlar, is comprised of a segmental arch with coffered soffit that spans the carriageway. A rectangular portal for the pavement to either side has an attached unfluted Greek Doric column at each corner. A dentilled cornice carries a panelled parapet to each side of the Walls footpath. The broad central panel of the north parapet is inscribed: INCHOATA GUIELMO NEWELL ARM. MAI. A.D. MDCCCVIII: PERFECTA THOMA GROSVENOR ARM. MAI. A.D. MDCCCX: THOMA HARRISON ARCHITECT, and the north parapet is inscribed: PROTAM SEPTENTRIONALEM SUBSTRUCTAM A ROMANE VETUSTATE JAM DILAPSURAM: COMES GROSVENOR A.R. GEORGII TERTII LI. The adjacent City Wall parapets, a little lower, are swept upwards to the abutments of the Northgate.

<10> Earthworks Archaeological Services, 2015, An Archaeological Assessment of Proposed Remedial Works at King Charles Tower Steps and North Gate Access Steps, City Walls, Chester, R3836 (Client Report). SCH7965.

As part of a programme of monitoring and investigation work of the North Gate steps and City Wall prior to remdial works, a trial pit was excavated in 2015 at the east end of the steps structure. It idenitified that the stone steps were founded on a single course of sandstone foundation, the trench for which had been cut into the rubble backfill of a potential subterranean feature. At the northern end of the trial pit, a masonry structure was encountered beneath the basal course of the City Wall. This structure and the rubble backfill are thought to relate to the medieval phase of the Northgate and potentially formed a basement or similar space beneath the medieval Northgate structure. In support of this theory, an early nineteenth century etching of the medieval Northgate (Grosvenor Museum) depicts a window set at ground level on the exterior west frontage of the gate structure, this could have provided lighting to such a subterranean space. This space would have had to be filled prior to Thomas Harrison's rebuilding of the Northgate in 1808-1810. Significantly, this masonry structure had been mortared to an earlier masonry structure employing large, squared blocks of sandstone, the size and character of these blocks are indicative of a Roman date (see 8204/1).